African Graphic Novels

I came across three great links on a tweet from @gkofiannan who was retweeting @emeka_okafor and pointing to African graphic novels that will be interesting to anyone interested in Africa, graphic novels, or smart things in general. “aya” is one, and you can find it here: Africa Unchained: Search results for aya. As well the Guardian has a story on “Marguerite Abouet’s hugely popular series of books, centred on the life of a young woman in a cheerful Ivory Coast suburb, show an Africa far from stereotypes of war and disease” which also sound interesting. Finally there is a good blog post on “The Shadow Speaker”, another such work.

I believe France has a strong tradition of graphic novels. And I noticed that two of the authors here are associated with Côte d’Ivoire. I wonder if there is any connection there? Regardless, they look great. Check them out.